Disasterpiece

I was sitting in the back of a taxi with Corey on our way home after a long night of catching up; the first sun rays were just beginning to peak over the edge of the dark horizon. Corey kept a tight hold on my hand the whole trip, as if he was afraid I was going to disappear at any moment – just a figment of his drunken imagination. I stared down at his arm, tracing the fingers of my free hand over his tattoos; most of them new additions since I had known him. This was nice, I felt so safe been next to him again, he had always been there to protect me and once again here he was. The taxi slowly began to slow; I sighed and smiled up at Corey.

“Now that I know where you live there will be no more of this loosing contact shit,” Corey joked as we pulled up to the curb outside my house. I smiled weakly at him and nodded, there was no disagreement coming from this end. “We should catch up soon, I’d love to talk with Josie again, she was a funny as hell,” Corey added.

“Well you’ve got my number, call me when you’re not being all big and winning Grammy’s,” I replied lightly. We both smiled and hugged each other goodnight before I got out of the cab. I watched tiredly as the taxi pulled out and disappeared down the street, carrying away with it the most unbelievable night of my life. I yawned loudly and stumbled up the path, the front door was unlocked luckily enough for me, so I walked straight in and locked it behind me. All the lights were off except one in the living room, I went to turn it off when I noticed that Josie was sitting on the couch with folded arms glaring at me.

“What?” I asked, dumping my bag on the floor I collapsed on the couch across from her. She coughed impatiently, her nostrils flaring; I could hear her foot tapping the floor boards beneath. “Oh come on, what?” I groaned sinking down further into the couch until my back was completely slumped.

“Do you know what the time is hmm?” she snapped tersely. I yawned again and shook my head, I hadn’t even gone back to work after my break – Uncle Frank didn’t seem to mind, especially when he recognised who I was talking to. It turned into quite a little reunion; Uncle Frank was always very fond of Corey, even after our parents divorce. “Well it’s late enough for me to think that you’d been abducted,” Josie hissed, her voice was lighter this time, the anger was wearing off by the second.

“Oh Josie I’m sorry ok? I lost track of time…I was catching up with some one,” I apologised, pulling myself up into a sitting position. Josie went to say something, probably along the lines of “you should’ve called”, when she realised all of what I had just said. She froze momentarily and blinked a few times, and then in a few swift movements she was sitting next to me leaning over eagerly.

“Catching up with who?” she asked, her eyes bright and wide; this for her was the most exciting news involving me for the last two years. I snorted at her reaction and pushed her away from me, but she wasn’t budging; she was back in my face a second later. “Vixen Jessica Law,” she said in a low commanding voice. “You tell me this instant who you were ‘catching up with’ or else I’ll go wake Daniel up and make him hold you until I tickle it out of you,” she warned, I rolled my eyes but gave in knowing full well that that was not an empty threat.

“It was Corey,” I answered simply, my finger tips tingled at the mention of his name; everything seemed so unreal still. My brother, my best friend for so many years; a person I wasn’t sure if I would see again let alone face, just waltzed back into my life with a bloody hand and an unbelievable life story to match. I couldn’t say that I hadn’t missed him, that would be a lie that would injure common sense as well as both parties; but seeing him brought back everything I had been fighting to forget since he left me. Josie fell back in astonishment, by the look of her face this was the last person she had expected me to say, Jimmy Hendrix would have been a more likely choice.

“Corey-Corey?” she asked weakly; I nodded in reply, watching her reaction carefully. “Well fuck me,” she whispered to herself blankly, I could see her fingers digging deeply into the couch, like she was trying to steady herself as the plane she was in went crashing into the ground.

“It was weird; did you know he’s in a big band now?” I pondered out loud, my face wrinkling in disbelief at the whole idea. Josie looked guilty when she shrugged and looked away in reply. “You knew?!” I gasped in astonishment; I could understand why she hadn’t mentioned anything to me about it, but it was still a shock to find out that she knew all along about the kind of life he led now.

“I haven’t been exactly as dead to the world as you are Vix,” she sighed, her mouth turned up at the corner in a pitiful smile. I cringed slightly and turned my head away from her; the grave I had dug for myself through my choices in friends and relationships had not just hurt me, and Josie was the only person who had stuck around through the whole ordeal.

I felt Josie’s fingers run down the side of my face and tuck some hair behind my ear gently; I let out a deep breath and stood up. “I’m going to bed,” I mumbled quietly, not looking down at Josie as I walked across the room. Just as I got to the hallway I turned back around towards her, “Corey wants to catch up with you by the way,” I added.

I woke up to a nauseas feeling in my stomach, the sweat that had drenched my body last night clung like honey to my skin, but didn’t smell remotely as good. Stumbling from my bed, I walked as fast as I could to the toilet where I emptied the contents of my stomach. My head throbbed and my throat burnt from the acidic taste of vomit; bringing my knees up to my chest, I let the cold tiles comfort me. Last night had been harsh, a combination of vivid visions of the past and the searing pain brought on from the loss of the only thing I held onto these days.

“Vixen, doll are you alright?” Josie’s voice filtered in from outside the door. I coughed; pushing myself up from the floor I flushed the toilet and opened the door. Josie stood there with a look of worry adorning her face; she frowned at the sight of me and unfolded her crossed arms. “Jeez Vix, you want me to call Frankie and tell him you’re sick?” she asked.

I shook my head forcefully and slid out of the bathroom into the hallway. “I’m fine, just…you know,” I replied, Josie raised her eyebrow and stepped forward, engulfing me in one of her infamous hugs.

“You haven’t had a nightmare since you bought that god damned grave, what’s happened?” she asked into my ear. My body tensed up, I could feel my eyes beginning sting again like they had yesterday morning – it felt like an age ago. Josie pulled back and stared at me, eyes wide. “Grave?” she asked blankly.

I pursed my lips together and tried not to cry, my mind had been so busy with seeing Corey again that it hadn’t had room last night to even flicker back to the morning’s memory. But it could concentrate with undivided attention on it now; a wave of hopelessness washed over me.

“Tell me what happened,” Josie said; grabbing my hand she pulled me back into my room where we collapsed on the bed next to each other. I stared at the floor without really seeing it; what was I going to do now? Did it matter that I didn’t have it now that Corey was back? But who’s to say he’s going to even stay, and I didn’t have enough will left in me to deal with losing that part of my life again without something to fall back on. But what to do? Going back to plead for it with the caretaker was not going to work, I knew that. Who would give it back to me though, who had that power?

Only whoever stole it from me…

“You know this is really testing my patience level,” Josie grumbled, I couldn’t help but smile when I turned to look her; her and Corey shared that trait, they were the most impatient people in existence.

“Sorry, its hard for me to…I forgot about it last night with the whole Corey thing…” my explanation trailed off. Josie rolled her eyes and grabbed my shoulders, I knew she was resisting the urge to shake me and start screaming for a proper explanation. “Someone bought my grave,” I told her.

Josie’s arms dropped immediately, an honest look of sorrow passed over her features. “Oh Vixen,” she whispered before engulfing me in yet another hug.